EDITORIAL Helping Hands The Friedman and Schmidt families who arrived at Metro Air- port Tuesday night are part of the largest wave of Jews to leave the Soviet Union since the gates to emigration shut in the early 1980s. International politics aside, is the Detroit Jewish community prepared to receive and acculturate the newcomers? The community provides each immigrant family a three-month support system of welcome, housing and food, plus an ongoing pro- gram of English classes and job placement. But with nearly 40 ar- rivals in the last few months and as many or more set to come in the next few months, Jewish Family Service's small resettlement staff is already overworked. Due to the higher-than-expected level of immigration to Detroit, JFS has requested additional budgeting from the Jewish Welfare Federation. The Federation has begun to study the request and assured JFS that it will meet the increased need. Absorption of newcomers is not only the responsibility of Jewish institutions, however. There are ways for the ordinary Jew to help. Volunteers are needed as translators, drivers and as guides through American life for the newcomers. While those arriving now are joining already established families, the community must still take an active part in helping the im- migrants acclimate to their strange new life. Our communal agen- cies must allocate the resources to do the job right. Our people must involve themselves and draw the Russians into Jewish life and the Jewish community. Disaster The United States' strategy in the Persian Gulf is a disaster waiting to happen. So far, the accidental crash of a Navy helicopter has killed at least one American, the newly reflagged oil tanker Bridgeton has been crippled by a mine — and U.S. strategists and naval forces have been exposed, respectively, as having little vision and being inadequate. We have, it seems, neither enough minesweepers nor enough military prescience to get the tanker escor- ting job in the gulf done correctly. Even England has turned down our request for British 'minesweepers to clear shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf. England is both fearful of getting embroiled in the seemingly interminable Iran-Iraq war and confident that its low-profile, eight-year-old Ar- milla Patrol can continue its stellar job. In the last year alone, the patrol has escorted without incident 150 British ships through the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the gulf. But this collective egg on American faces may be minor corn- pared to what could lie ahead. The chance for combat with Iran is real and palpable. The chance of a regional war becoming a broader war is frightening. American anger toward Iran under the Khomeini regime is understandable. We were embarrassed in 1979 when our embassy staff was held hostage for 444 days; we were embarrassed when Iranian-backed terrorists killed hundreds of American Marines in Lebanon; and we are embarrassed now when shipping is no longer safe in the Persian Gulf. But anger is not enough. What is needed is a consistent policy toward the Islamic republic. Our diplomatic strategists must decide whether we want revenge against Iran — or accommodating the Union. We cannot ship arms to Iran one day, covertly or not, and rattle our swords the next. Our military strategists must decide whether we intend to sail softly and carry a big stick in the Persian Gulf, or invoke an attack on the U.S.-escorted tankers and, thus, allow the Pentagon a chance to smash the Iranian infidels. It is time to reassess our stance toward the Persian Gulf, toward Iran, toward Khomeini — and toward our own Navy and its valued personnel. What is needed is consistency over time — not knee-jerk policies that conform to the peculiar and changing exigencies of the moment. WIAT18 WRAti F i TANK iT I MC OF 111E WA TO Oita 11-EiR AND AND LEND WV MINESWEEPING • •,,,,s• eQuipmeNr! Ifbe .;4k -- '• LETTERS Acceptable To Anybody I deeply appreciate ("Pure- ly Commentary," July 24) .. . I can tell a story about Fred Butzel, whom I never met but who I am told put in a good word for me when I needed it. After I came out of prison and started to work on my Documentary History of the Jews in the United States, I applied to the American Jewish Historical Society for membership. When my ap- plication came before the board of directors, some peo- ple raised the question of whether I was fit for member- ship since I was a felon and a convict and so on. Louis 6 FRIDAY, AUG. 7, 1987 Finkelstein of the Jewish Theological Seminary was one of those who raised the question. Whereupon Dr. Joshua Bloch, chief of the Jewish division of the New York Public Library . . . spoke up and, calling attention to the fact that Louis Finkelstein had a brother who had serv- ed time in Sing Sing, said something to the effect of, "If I were you, Louis, I wouldn't talk," and then testified to the fact that I was a serious scholar (since he had observ- ed me coming to the New York Public Library, Jewish division, for years on end). Whereupon Fred Butzel put an end to the discussion by saying that if I were accep- table to Bloch I should be ac- ceptable to anybody .. . Morris U. Schappes Editor, Jewish Currents Why Are The Haredim Silent? While Philip Slomovitz's July 17 article on the Haredi community in Israel deserves condemnation, I was very dissapointed by the response of the Detroit area Orthodox rabbis which appeared in the July 31st issue. The rabbis write that members of the Haredi com- munity "all abhor the violence and subversion with which Mr. Slomovitz associates them all." The fact of the matter is that a key source of tension betwen the Haredi communi- ty and other Israelis is that Haredi leadership has at best remained silent and, in some unfortunate instances, has expressed anything but abhorrence for Haredi violence .. . Anyone who has been to Israel and has seen the bathing suit posters placed in bus stop displays which sparked so much controversy would concede that such pro- vocative ads would never be permitted in the United States. When elements in the Haredi community opted to take the law into their own hands and deface the posters and torch the bus shelters Knesset members from Agudat Yisrael refused to condemn the activity. Keep in mind that this destruction of public proper- ty was highly organized: To keep police busy and off their trail, peole swamped the authorities with false bomb reports — a tremendously dangerous prank in a city where real bombs are periodically placed. I understand why some Haredim feel they cannot respect anything associated with the Zionist State .. . What I don't understand is